This Week’s Torah Portion: Vayeira (Genesis 18:1–22:24)

Tales of Destruction abound in the literature of the ancient world. Flood stories, fire stories, stories of war and plague and destruction. And, in many ways, the story of Sodom and Gomorrah is just a Jewish version of that same sort of terrifying tale. And yet, the biblical story of Sodom and Gomorrah takes these tales and turns them on their heads to ask some deeper questions about the nature of God, the meaning of justice, and the role which we, God’s children, are commanded to play.

The story of Sodom and Gomorrah is not about the destruction of two cities, lost to the sand and salt of time. The moral of this story is a more lifted legend. The lesson of Sodom and Gomorrah is simply this: God is not in the whirlwind, not in the destructive hand. God is in the still small voice which murmurs beneath the blessing, beneath the pain, beneath the lives we all lead upon this earth. God is in Abraham’s willingness to provoke God, and God is in God’s listening to Abraham’s call. The moral of our story is: never be afraid to provoke, even God, for the cause of justice.